The Wrap: From Code Pink halting Obama’s speech to the Vatican’s denied exorcism, the week that was

President Obama pauses while talking about national security on Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. He was interrupted multiple times by hecklers. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Illegal immigrants easily step over a fallen barbed-wire fence between Mexico and the United States near the town of Sasabe, Mexico, in 2004. The number of apprehensions of illegal border-crossers is down while the number of deaths in the desert is high. (Associated Press)

Pope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

**FILE** IRS official Lois Lerner is sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 22, 2013, before the House Oversight Committee hearing to investigate the extra scrutiny IRS gave to tea party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. Lerner told the committee she did nothing wrong and then invoked her constitutional right to not answer lawmakers' questions. (Associated Press)

A man stands in a London street after allegedly screaming, 'Allahu Akbar,' and killing a man in broad daylight. (ITV news screenshot)

CODEPINK founder Medea Benjamin shouts at President Obama as she is removed from the back of the auditorium during his speech about national security on May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. (Associated Press)

**FILE** New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (Associated Press)

**FILE** Former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. (Associated Press)

In this image made from video, Pope Francis lays his hands on the head of a young man on Sunday, May 19, 2013, after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The television station of the Italian bishops conference said it had surveyed exorcists, who agreed Francis either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil. The Vatican was more cautious Tuesday, saying Francis “didn’t intend to perform any exorcism.” (AP Photo/Associated Press Television News)

President Obama reacts as his speech is interrupted by CODEPINK founder Medea Benjamin as he talked about national security on May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. (Associated Press)

By -
The Washington Times -
Saturday, May 25, 2013

President Obama’s foreign policy speech was stopped multiple times by Code Pink heckling, and Lois Lerner was suspended from the her position at the IRS.

On the international stage, two men in the United Kingdom murdered a soldier in the streets of London.

Here’s a recap, or wrap, of the week that was from The Washington Times.

The woman at the center of the IRS scandal was put on paid administrative leave Thursday, marking the second agency official to be removed over the inappropriate scrutiny of conservative groups.

The news came even as two top senators called for Lois Lerner to be suspended on accusations of misleading their investigation into the tax-exempt organizations division of the IRS, which she led, and as new details emerged about her past.

The SenateJudiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge.

Former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas called the recent IRS fiasco troubling — but writes that the only way Congress can protect the freedoms of Americans from a long pattern of suspected IRS abuse is to “shutter the doors” of the agency “once and for all.”

The longtime GOP congressman writes that IRS agents in the 1930s were essentially “hit squads” against opponents of the New Deal, and that allegations of IRS abuse spanned the administrations of Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Clinton and George W. Bush.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg cursed out the chief executive officer of a taxi company who won a court case against the city and pledged a post-mayoral revenge against the entire industry, the CEO and one witness said.